Many industries utilize tubing to dispense fluid or remove fluid. For example, the biopharmaceutical industry, the medical industry and the food and beverage industry utilize tubing for the transfer of fluids. In various situations, thermoplastic elastomer tubing is used for fluid transfer.
Typically, thermoplastic elastomer tubing is formed from pellets of one or more of the starting materials. In some cases, the pellets are formed by combining powders of one or more of the starting materials, such as a powder of a thermoplastic component of the tubing and a powder of an elastomer component of the tubing. The combined powders are then melted and, in some situations, the melt can be extruded and cut into pellets of a particular size. In certain scenarios, the pellets can be subjected to an additional pelletizing process involving a second melt operation, a second extrusion operation, and a second cutting operation. The pellets may then undergo an additional melt process and be combined with other starting materials to be extruded to form thermoplastic elastomer tubing.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.